66 Wilderness Ways. 



his own in the snow. The next night Gillie's fur cap 

 had been snatched from his head, and when he turned 

 there was nobody in sight; and when he burst into 

 camp, with all his wits frightened out of him, he could 

 scarcely speak, and his face was deathly white. Other 

 uncanny things had happened since, in the same way, 

 and coupled with a bad accident on the river, which 

 the men thought was an omen, they had put the camp 

 into such a state of superstitious fear that no one 

 ventured alone out of doors after nightfall. 



I thought of Kookooskoos and my own head, but 

 said nothing. They would only have resented the 

 suggestion. 



Next day I found my caribou, and returned to the 

 lumber camp before sunset. At twilight there was 

 Kookooskoos, an enormous fellow, looking like the 

 end of a big spruce stub, keeping sharp watch over 

 the clearing, and fortunately behind the camp where 

 he could not see the door. I called the men and set 

 them crouching in the snow under the low eaves. 

 " Stay there a minute and I '11 show you the ghost." 

 That was all I told them. 



Taking the skin of a hare which I had shot that 

 day, I hoisted it cautiously on a stick, the lumbermen 

 watching curiously. A slight scratch of the stick, a 

 movement of the fur along the splits, then a great 



